Is anyone else having trouble connecting to hfsignals.com?
?My browser reports that hfsignals.com rejected my connection. I can connect to other websites and I get a PING response from hfsignals.com.
I've tried a couple of different computers and different browsers.
--
73,
Mark, N8ME
|
Re: Great Lakes On The Air?
Way back in 2016 I first got on the HF bands and got addicted to Parks On The Air. As a matter of fact, my very first HF QSO was with Cow Pens National Battlefield. This led me to do a local "POTA" local city Park On The Air where my local club went out once or twice a month and operated portable at a local city park. I ended up getting a recumbent trike and I would take along my KX3 in a saddle bag. I put a 25-foot telescoping fishing pole behind the seat and I would go ride every day and stop to take a break and get on the radio for a bit.?  The black pipe in the pic holds the telescoping fishing pole. The pipe is just a PVC pipe painted in spray on truck bed liner to make it look cool. The KX3 and wire antenna easily fit in the bag over the rear wheel.?  Here is a pic with the fishing pole extended.? Sadly my KX3 got stolen and I no longer have a portable radio. My back decided to literally fall apart and grow a bunch of bone spurs to mount a full-scale attack on my spinal cord.? This is why I am stuck in bed and why it is taking so long for me to homebrew the sBITX. The plan is to get some surgeries done and back on the trike by spring.? I'm all for anything that gets an amateur radio operator out of the shack and out into some open and fresh air. Great Lakes on the Air sounds like a great idea. Unfortunately, I have never seen one of the Great Lakes but it would be fun to get one or more in the logbook. In 2019 I was contacted by some guys in Canada and they are really big into lighthouses they talked me into activating the only one in Oklahoma. It is about 15 miles from my house and since I am no longer allowed to drive, I loaded up my trike and rode out to the lighthouse (actually it is more of an upper-class restaurant than an actual lighthouse)? and activated it. I added a handy talky and mag mount to the trike and used a headset and got to talk on the repeaters to and from the lighthouse.? I really miss getting out of the house and operating from my trike. Soon I will be able to do it again and I am lucky to live in a city that has been building bike paths like crazy.? Yeah, you have my vote for GLOTA.? -- '72
Aaron K5ATG
P.S. Perhaps we should come up with a scaled-down portable BITX
|
Re: Great Lakes On The Air?
Hi David:
I'm forwarding this to Jim Manley, as he has "volunteered" to head up the project. I'm starting to think that valid lakes are ones that are identified as lakes by Google maps. That's easier than using gov't maps. All you have to do is provide the coordinates and see if it finds it. If you right-click on a map, it display the coordinates for that spot. I did see one very small body of water name Medco Pond and another one that wasn't named at all. Those would not qualify in my mind.
Lots of details to iron out.
Jack, W8TEE
On Monday, December 5, 2022 at 11:30:25 AM EST, David Barber <wd8ajq@...> wrote:
Bruce W4BRU:
You have a good Idea. These are some of my thoughts.
Suggest focusing on the Great Lakes to start with. Unless there is a already created designation Letter/Number for each Great Lake, suggest:
¡°G¡± & abrevation for the lake name; ¡°V¡±for large vessel, ¡°F¡±Fairy, ¡°C¡± for small craft; ¡°m¡± for mobile, ¡°D¡± for dock, ¡°A¡± for anchored;? ?¡°L¡± for on main land, ¡°I¡± for island; State/Provence abbreviation; Country abbreviation.
My brother has a Cabin Cruiser on Lake Erie. If I had my station operating Great Lakes on the air, it could be like this: WD8AJQ G E C D OH USA What do you think? ??
Kick this idea around. ? Again, these are some of my thoughts.
73 Dave WD8AJQ
On Dec 1, 2022, at 2:46 PM, Bruce W4BRU <w4bru@...> wrote:
?Why not; the British have Churches and Chapels on the Air, https://rsgb.org/main/blog/news/gb2rs/headlines/2015/06/05/churches-chapels-air-2/
--
Jack, W8TEE
|
Bruce W4BRU:
You have a good Idea. These are some of my thoughts.
Suggest focusing on the Great Lakes to start with. Unless there is a already created designation Letter/Number for each Great Lake, suggest:
¡°G¡± & abrevation for the lake name; ¡°V¡±for large vessel, ¡°F¡±Fairy, ¡°C¡± for small craft; ¡°m¡± for mobile, ¡°D¡± for dock, ¡°A¡± for anchored;? ?¡°L¡± for on main land, ¡°I¡± for island; State/Provence abbreviation; Country abbreviation.
My brother has a Cabin Cruiser on Lake Erie. If I had my station operating Great Lakes on the air, it could be like this: WD8AJQ G E C D OH USA What do you think? ??
Kick this idea around. ? Again, these are some of my thoughts.
73 Dave WD8AJQ
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Dec 1, 2022, at 2:46 PM, Bruce W4BRU <w4bru@...> wrote:
?Why not; the British have Churches and Chapels on the Air, https://rsgb.org/main/blog/news/gb2rs/headlines/2015/06/05/churches-chapels-air-2/
|
Aaron,
Try solder paste. ?You then just pick the part up with tweezers and place it close to the pads with the solder paste on. Then using your wife¡¯s embossing gun or a soldering iron with a hot air blower (I love my Weller butane portable (Portasol I think) soldering iron heat the junction and the parts snap into position as the solder paste melts. ?Eezy peezy. ?Just another fun thing to experiment with on a cold rainy or snowy day when you can¡¯t be out slinging up antenna wires. ?(I have found that any TEMPORARY antenna slung up on such a lousy day tends to be kept and turned into permanent by next spring. We moved into a new home 8 years ago and my temporary G5RV antenna is still up and working well. Other have been added since then. ?But the temporary one put up in the worst weather works best.)
Dave K8WPE David J. Wilcox¡¯s iPad
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Dec 4, 2022, at 12:23 PM, Aaron K5ATG via groups.io <k5atg@...> wrote:
?Ok here is LPF 2.0 using SMT caps. I had some troubles with the SMT caps as they were hard for me to maneuver around to get in the right spot. It is my very first attempt at using SMT components, but I suspect that I will get better the more that I use them. Because of my current health condition, I can work only a few minutes a day. At this rate maybe sBITX v9 will be out by the time I finish lol. As with the first attempt at the LPF, let me know if I messed up. Everything is a learning experience.?  -- '72
Aaron K5ATG
|
Thanks, Tom...it's appreciated!
Jack, W8TEE
On Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 06:46:39 PM EST, Tom Christian <tmchristian@...> wrote:
Great book!? Will look forward to buying it a 2nd time.......:) Tom
AB7WT?
-- Jack, W8TEE
|
Great book!? Will look forward to buying it a 2nd time.......:) Tom
AB7WT?
|
The trouble I had with the UBITX I bought was that there wasn't any sound coming out, but there
weren't any instructions along with the UBITX, but I eventually found out that you need to plug the cable onto the pins next to the volume control potentiometer, and then it worked.
? ? ? ? ?73, Dan, N7DE
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
So, assuming the 45mhz filter up front is wide enough to ignore during calibration,
we need to remember two values during calibration:
a) The Si5351 25mhz correction.
b) The BFO placement.? ?(I'd think of that as the 12/11 mhz IF center frequency)
Anything you write to the Nano's EEPROM or flash could get clobbered when people
load new firmware.? Or perhaps the Nano dies and must be replaced.
So those figures are best stored somewhere other than inside the Nano.
Also, the Raduino should have it's own serial number so the Si5351 calibration
could be tagged to that particular Raduino, separate from the main board serial number
and its figure for BFO placement.? Locking down the BFO placement
won't work if troubleshooting and we need two swap in a different Raduino.
Recording those two values with associated serial numbers in a text file stored on
the hfsignals website would solve this issue.??
Alternately (or in addition to), include an extra $1 worth of parts
and an easy to follow procedure for determining those two values.
Jerry, KE7ER
On Sun, Dec 4, 2022 at 02:18 PM, Ashhar Farhan wrote:
Jerry,
The part trouble is that every individual radio has a slightly different center of the ssb filter passband.
This is due to the low cost crystals that we use. These have great frequency variations at times as much as 3 KHz. These are sorted into bins that are within 200 Hz of each other. All crystals of a single radio come from the same bin.
The 25 MHz crystal used in the Si5351 is also similarly spread out.?
The calibration proceeds in two steps, that must be followed in the proper sequence. First, the si5351 is software compensated by back calculating the exact frequency of the 25 MHz crystal when it is set to generate a known reference frequency.
Then, the BFO is to be set on the upper slope of the SSB filter (not the lower slope, or as beginners often do - the center).?
Both require an ear for the beats and a good source of stable and known frequency. There is a tuning aid too that is available online.
The short message is that each radio has its own reference oscillator frequency and its own ssb bfo setting.
Probably, we should have a separately stored factory setting that can be recalled.
- f
|
So, assuming the 45mhz filter up front is wide enough to ignore during calibration,
we need to remember two values during calibration:
a) The Si5351 25mhz correction.
b) The BFO placement.? ?(I'd think of that as the 12/11 mhz IF center frequency)
Anything you write to the Nano's EEPROM or flash could get clobbered when people
load new firmware.? Or perhaps the Nano dies and must be replaced.
So those figures are best stored somewhere other than inside the Nano.
Also, the Raduino should have it's own serial number so the Si5351 calibration
could be tagged to that particular Raduino, separate from the main board serial number
and its figure for BFO placement.? Locking down the BFO placement
won't work if troubleshooting and we need two swap in a different Raduino.
Recording those two values with associated serial numbers in a text file stored on
the hfsignals website would solve this issue.??
Alternately (or in addition to), include an extra $1 worth of parts
and an easy to follow procedure for determining those two values.
Jerry, KE7ER
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Sun, Dec 4, 2022 at 02:18 PM, Ashhar Farhan wrote:
Jerry,
The part trouble is that every individual radio has a slightly different center of the ssb filter passband.
This is due to the low cost crystals that we use. These have great frequency variations at times as much as 3 KHz. These are sorted into bins that are within 200 Hz of each other. All crystals of a single radio come from the same bin.
The 25 MHz crystal used in the Si5351 is also similarly spread out.?
The calibration proceeds in two steps, that must be followed in the proper sequence. First, the si5351 is software compensated by back calculating the exact frequency of the 25 MHz crystal when it is set to generate a known reference frequency.
Then, the BFO is to be set on the upper slope of the SSB filter (not the lower slope, or as beginners often do - the center).?
Both require an ear for the beats and a good source of stable and known frequency. There is a tuning aid too that is available online.
The short message is that each radio has its own reference oscillator frequency and its own ssb bfo setting.
Probably, we should have a separately stored factory setting that can be recalled.
- f
|
Jerry, The part trouble is that every individual radio has a slightly different center of the ssb filter passband. This is due to the low cost crystals that we use. These have great frequency variations at times as much as 3 KHz. These are sorted into bins that are within 200 Hz of each other. All crystals of a single radio come from the same bin. The 25 MHz crystal used in the Si5351 is also similarly spread out.? The calibration proceeds in two steps, that must be followed in the proper sequence. First, the si5351 is software compensated by back calculating the exact frequency of the 25 MHz crystal when it is set to generate a known reference frequency. Then, the BFO is to be set on the upper slope of the SSB filter (not the lower slope, or as beginners often do - the center).? Both require an ear for the beats and a good source of stable and known frequency. There is a tuning aid too that is available online. The short message is that each radio has its own reference oscillator frequency and its own ssb bfo setting. Probably, we should have a separately stored factory setting that can be recalled. - f - f
I suggest any critical calibration values be saved along with the serial number
Put data for all rigs in one ascii text file on the hfsignals website, available to the public.
This could easily be automated as part of the calibration procedure.
Could also print the calibration data on paper and glue it to the bottom of the PC board
for those that don't always have reliable internet access.
In addition, I'm all for?including an RF detector and appropriate attenuators on the board
so users can easily characterize any filters and do other troubleshooting of the rig.
Jerry, KE7ER
On Sun, Dec 4, 2022 at 03:59 AM, Evan Hand wrote:
Rather than lock the Calibration and BFO settings, I recommend that the current values be displayed when starting the adjustment.? That would allow the Ham to record the factory value and return to it if needed.
|
Yup, and now off to building the crystal filter. -- '72
Aaron K5ATG
|
Looks beautiful!
Must have been a month worth of days if you did that in only a few minutes a day. ;-)
Jerry, KE7ER
On Sun, Dec 4, 2022 at 09:23 AM, Aaron K5ATG wrote:
Ok here is LPF 2.0 using SMT caps. I had some troubles with the SMT caps as they were hard for me to maneuver around to get in the right spot. It is my very first attempt at using SMT components, but I suspect that I will get better the more that I use them. Because of my current health condition, I can work only a few minutes a day. At this rate maybe sBITX v9 will be out by the time I finish lol. As with the first attempt at the LPF, let me know if I messed up. Everything is a learning experience.?
|
Ok here is LPF 2.0 using SMT caps. I had some troubles with the SMT caps as they were hard for me to maneuver around to get in the right spot. It is my very first attempt at using SMT components, but I suspect that I will get better the more that I use them. Because of my current health condition, I can work only a few minutes a day. At this rate maybe sBITX v9 will be out by the time I finish lol. As with the first attempt at the LPF, let me know if I messed up. Everything is a learning experience.?  -- '72
Aaron K5ATG
|
I suggest any critical calibration values be saved along with the serial number
Put data for all rigs in one ascii text file on the hfsignals website, available to the public.
This could easily be automated as part of the calibration procedure.
Could also print the calibration data on paper and glue it to the bottom of the PC board
for those that don't always have reliable internet access.
In addition, I'm all for?including an RF detector and appropriate attenuators on the board
so users can easily characterize any filters and do other troubleshooting of the rig.
Jerry, KE7ER
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Sun, Dec 4, 2022 at 03:59 AM, Evan Hand wrote:
Rather than lock the Calibration and BFO settings, I recommend that the current values be displayed when starting the adjustment.? That would allow the Ham to record the factory value and return to it if needed.
|
It could be improper connection at the speaker jacks internals.
Raj
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On 04/12/2022 3:27 PM, Prashanth N S wrote:
To be clear, by lack of audio, I mean that there is no reception at all. In most videos I see online, there is a ¡°noise¡± that¡¯s heard. So I assumed I might have done something wrong¡ I mean without tweaking the BFO. Or am I understanding this wrong?
for eg upon assembly and adding a rudimentary antenna, I expect there to be some noise at ham frequencies? Not blaming the device! Just trying to figure this out!
Regards,
prashanth
|
Dear all,
Much appreciate responses. I believe I did the assembly properly. For now, I will:
1. Try listening for noise with headphone jack
2. Re-look at the assembly as pointed by Evan?
and Hope this is solved. Will post update on this once I do. Thanks again for patient responses.
regards,
prashanth?
|
Prashanth,
Sorry to read that your v6 is not working.? Sometimes it is the simple things that get us.? Are you sure you connected the speaker and encoder to the correct connectors?? Spare connectors on the mainboard are identical to the correct ones.? The two that come to mind are the alternate antenna connection and the Audio connector.? The speaker can be connected to the antenna, and the encoder can be connected to the audio.? Both would cause the radio to malfunction.??
I would suggest you review the assembly instructions here:
Look at the picture in Step 8.? Note the Encoder connection to the Raduino board behind the display and the speaker connection in the upper right (the brown and black wires).
73
Evan
AC9TU
|
Farhan,
Rather than lock the Calibration and BFO settings, I recommend that the current values be displayed when starting the adjustment.? That would allow the Ham to record the factory value and return to it if needed.
Most of the mods add this feature as well as the other options.? Some even allow us to save the values to a PC file.
It is an excellent radio for the price.? I have 6 of them from my first v4 to my current v6.? I did modify all of them.? Being open-sourced is the beauty of these rigs.? It makes it easy to add features or change the operation to suit the individual Ham.
73
Evan
AC9TU
|
While I agree that often the problem is that people start adjusting things that are not broken, the ability to do those things is one of the positive features about these rigs. The caution really should be to not make ANY change until the rig is tested as supplied from the factory, including adjusting the calibration, VFO, changing the software, or installing a new display.
In this case I am understanding that the radio has no audio output at all, without any adjustments.
=Vic=
|
Make sure the connectors are in the right places, like for the speaker. Can you hear anything if you plug an earphone into the jack?
|
Mark Erbaugh
Aaron K5ATG
David Wilcox K8WPE
Raj vu2zap
Prashanth N S
Vic WA4THR